Opinion An IIT of its own?

Bangalore has premier institutions such as the Indian Institute of Science and an Indian Institute of Management. It has a concentration of technology companies,defence R&D laboratories and multinationals. It is the hi-tech hub of India. So does it need another top engineering institution?

A city such as this can never have enough,says Prof. H.P. Khincha,former chairman of the electrical sciences wing of the Indian Institute of Science and currently vice chancellor of the Vishweshwariah Technological University. The world over,institutions are judged by three parameters,says Prof. Khincha — teaching,research and output impact.

The all-important third dimension — output impact — is a measure of an institution’s effect on its environment in the form of launching new start-ups,helping develop intellectual property and partaking in the economic development.

If decision-makers were to benchmark other potential locations against Bangalore on any of the parameters,the city would come up as the most ideal. “In terms of returns,it would make government investment most worthwhile,” says Prof. Khincha.

Bangalore already has an IIT on Bannerghatta Road,says S. Sadagopan,founder director of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Information Technology. He jokes that he is referring to an engineering college called Islamiah Institute of Technology,which abbreviates itself to IIT.

Institutions can never be about land,buildings,funds or appeasing some lobby or the other. “It is about people,” says Dr. Sadagopan. To attract the best students,the best faculty and the best resources,institutions need to go where people want to go.

Bangalore has the social and corporate infrastructure to attract the best of students,faculty,industry speakers and collaborators,says Dr. Sadagopan.

“The whole world wants to go to Bangalore,this city can galvanise an institution such as IIT,” says Dr. Sadagopan,who has earlier taught at IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore. Young Indians want to be in a high-energy city like Bangalore. “An IIT could feed off this energy,” he says.

As part of the Eleventh Five Year Plan,the government allocated funds to set up eight new IITs in states such as Bihar,Orissa and Rajasthan. But setting up an IIT in far flung locations will defeat its purpose. “If Obama wants to set up an institution in Wyoming,is it possible to make it world-class?” Sadagopan asks.

Infosys Technologies chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy rues that despite so much being made of IITs,India does not have a single top-notch institution. “If you take the Shanghai Ranking,we don’t have a single institution from India in the top 300,” says Murthy who is on the board of Tokyo University.

Whether in Bangalore or elsewhere,India needs to make its institutions first-rate. Murthy says institutions such as IITs need more autonomy,they need a meritocracy,and they need to forge collaborations with the best in the world outside.

Rather than set up more institutions,India should strive to make the existing ones world-class by putting in incremental infrastructure,says Murthy. “Setting up more and more IITs,having retired people teach there,and it becomes a formula for mediocrity,” says Murthy,adding,“It does not excite me to have one more mediocre institution”.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com